Texas Instruments

The Problem

• Previous process relied on pre-printed forms and manual entry, requiring repeated checks for human error.
• Employees at headquarters relied on internal mail service for manager approval, while satellite offices used postal mail to deliver expense forms, resulting in widely varied reimbursement times.
• Multiple office locations required different forms and were processed through petty cash instead of accounts payable.

The Solution

• Concur's expense reporting software allowing for preparation of reports, automatic routing to approval managers, integration into existing financial infrastructure, and expense analysis is now a streamlined, frictionless process.
• Automated audit rules instantly alert users to spending limits and policies without manager intervention, reducing the chances of fraud and increasing expense policy compliance.
• Expense reporting software is directly linked with Texas Instruments' SAP financial systems, increasing data accuracy and significantly cutting the time it takes to reimburse employees.

The Benefits

• Substantial reduction in the cost per expense report.
• Sizeable reduction in accounting staff required to process expense reports.
• Travel expense report preparation time has been significantly reduced.
• With Texas Instruments' corporate card, American Express, Concur Expense automatically pre-populates expense data, saving time, ensuring greater accuracy, and eliminating the need to submit paper-based receipts.

"The intrinsic value of the Internet lies in its ability to move bits not atoms," says Nancy Housinger, Internet applications manager for Texas Instruments. "Web-based technologies represent a smarter, faster, more efficient way to manage information-based processes. When we took a close look at our internal accounting practices, we understood that we needed to leverage the Web to optimize our back-office efficiency."

Prior to implementing Concur Expense, Texas Instruments, the world leader in digital signal processing and analog technologies, was mired in a complex, paper-based expense reporting process. Employees were required to complete two different pre-printed expense forms (one for local expenses which were reimbursed from petty cash and another for all other expenses), attach all receipts over $75, chase down the appropriate manager for approval, and patiently wait to be reimbursed. Meanwhile, Texas Instruments' Employee Accounts department maintained dedicated headcount whose sole responsibility was to process, code, and audit tens of thousands of expense reports on an annual basis.

"On average, it might take anywhere from three days to three-and-a-half weeks to process and approve an expense report," continued Housinger. "That's not only unnecessary, it's completely inefficient. Our goal was simple - to substantially reduce the paper trail from what has traditionally been a very paper intensive process."

In early 1998, Texas Instruments decided that it was time to leverage Web-based technologies to fully unify and automate their travel and entertainment (T&E) expense management process. Texas Instruments chose to license Concur's expense reporting software to its 11,000 U.S. employees who regularly submit expense reports. Specifications for the solution required that Concur Expense should fully integrate manager approval workflow processes, be configured to manage all types of expenses, be capable of calculating foreign currency exchanges, comply with existing audit rules, and interact with the company's SAP financial system on a scheduled basis.

Upon completion of the three-month deployment schedule, the benefits of the expense reporting software became quickly evident: employees could complete and submit expense reports in just a fraction of the time it would typically take. Meanwhile, the Employee Accounts department could reimburse employees faster and in greater compliance with existing expense policies. Automating the expense management process eliminated human errors, as expense data was automatically pre-populated from employees' corporate American Express cards.

Recently, Texas Instruments has upgraded to the most recent version of Concur Expense, which features a more intuitive user interface (UI), enhanced customization tools, and improved performance optimization. Housinger continued, "From a user standpoint, the new upgrade was superb. The UI was so clean and intuitive that we felt it didn't require any brown bag training sessions. In fact, our technical help desk received zero complaints about the new UI and only a handful of technical questions relating to the new version."

Based upon the success of the deployment in the U.S. and Canada, Texas Instruments is investigating deployment of the expense reporting software into its European and Asian offices in 2002. Texas Instruments processes on average between 5,500 to 6,000 expense reports per month through the Concur Expense application.

"99.4% of all U.S. expense statements are currently completed using Concur Expense. Any technology that empowers our employees to be more efficient and focused on their core competency we consider to be a best-practice," concluded Housinger. "Concur was one of the first Web-based applications to be deployed throughout the enterprise and it has proven the case that the vision of the paperless office might not be as far away as previously thought."